A superb collection of diaries from 20 people who experienced the First World War. There is a combination of civilians, one very young, along with soldiers, nurses and prisoners, from many different countries (a Venezuelan cavalryman fighting for the Ottoman Turks being the most exotic) and it is this which gives the book its appeal. The stories come from people as they saw the war, much of it not making sense because they only saw their own little piece. Their accounts track through the war, only rarely mentioning the big setpiece battles by which we look back at the war. So they recount the daily pressures of war as they felt them and are therefore sometimes very mundane. But you always know that you are reading the thoughts and experiences of people who sat at the sharp end of what war means. It is this reality that makes it so worth reading. Beautifully written accounts taken from letters and journals of those who experienced WWI as both citizens and soldiers. I love the scope of this book--some of the 20-odd featured characters include a teenage German girl, a middle-aged upper class British nurse, a South American soldier in the Ottoman army, an American opera singer married to a Polish count, an Italian mountaineer, a French politician, and a Danish soldier serving in the German trenches. Engineers, sailors, ambulance drivers, and citizens--so many points of view are explored. Englund did an amazing job turning their letters and journal entries into a cohesive, well-flowing narrative, while preserving their original words as often as possible. This book, for me, captured the essence of the "Great War" more than a book detailing battle plans and troop movements ever could.
Do You like book Stridens Skönhet Och Sorg (2008)?
great book, really gives you a personal view of all of the theaters of the conflict.
—deanh
Bright, touching and impressively truthful odyssey of humanity to a hell of war
—BUTTMONKEY
Looks like an interesting book but too complicated for my mood right now.
—Joselyn
